Mobile Telesystems (MTS) helps to improve health in Belarus

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MobileTeleSystems (MTS), the largest cell phone provider in Belarus, provides telecommunication services to hospitals, while also improving the health care of the poor.

A pilot project was undertaken in 2008 by MTS, along with the UN Global Compact in Belarus and the Ministry of Health. Since 2009, four more hospitals in remote areas of Belarus have started using the mobile cardiology systems for providing cardiac consultation to patients, and are paying MTS for using their services. More than 300 people have received quick ECG interpretation during a period of 9 months, which in some cases saved their lives.

In addition to the reduction of travel costs for the poor, telemedicine positively impacts the environment due to the reduction of travel related carbon emissions. MTS is now extending this model to other regions of the country, including to the territories most affected by the Chernobyl accident.